New York, New York, Nevada

Things I Miss about NY:

1) convenience - bodegas. 24 hour delis.

2) places staying open until 4am (altho have discovered that a couple places out here are open that late or later).

3) not having to drive when you go out - have to look for parking, pay for parking / parking ticket / cover - and then leave at 1:30am. and get there by 10pm. ew.

4) shopping - I'm pining for you, East Village shops!

5) food - Momofuku!

6) walking around.

7) riding my bike around. I hope that thief is enjoying my bike!

8) seeing shows - and ohmyrockness.com.

And so we went to New York this weekend!



The hotel in Vegas, that is. (yuck yuck) Walking around the miniature version of New York felt a bit monster-from-Cloverfield-like.

It was underwhelming because the shops were not real NY shops/bars (ie Magnolia Bakery, Serendipity, CBGBs - that would have been awesome!) and the building models felt too small.



However, the rollercoaster was suprisingly scary!



I scream like a girl. Simon belts out a were-dog-coy-ote combo. The footage was also reminescent of Cloverfield.

We went there for Simon's birthday, and were very conservative. Might even say we had the Frommers experience of Las Vegas (whose demographic seems to be upscale yuppies in their mid- late forties - based on our China experience).



We had lunch buffett at the Bellagio:





Overall, the brunch was just ok, but that duck leg was Ammaazzing. Thank you fleeting vegetarianism to allow me to sample that.

We saw the Bellagio water show:



They played God Bless the USA. Is this a July 4th celebration in the Midwest accompanied by an all you can eat Ribfest? I was disappointed that it was all white instead of different colors, but the parts where it shot up like a geyser were pretty cool.

We walked down the strip and passed all the opulent hotels. It felt like Rodeo Drive - as opposed to Las Vegas. My favorite was the Venentian - by far.




Pretty stunning!

Simon made us walk all the way down the strip to Treasure Island because he thought they had $1 craps. 7 hotels (all with $10 minimum tables) and 2 hours later - he pulls open the doors to Treasure Island and says - "Oh, I think the $1 craps was in Belluxi, Mississippi." Meanwhile, Justina's and I's feet are throbbing. We ended up playing $15 craps minimum table and my lucky rolling won us about $100 each! Thank you beginners luck.



That night we ended up making a video that may possibly be beyond our editing capabilities - but that video will be up soon. We shot it in our hotel room, which was Piimmp. It was a one bedroom suite at the Signature at MGM.







I got the craps bug - and that's all Simon and I could think about doing the second day. - we tried to re-summon my craps luck - but we lost $60 each. Then I won $40 back in blackjack. Tim met a guy in the bathroom who was down $100,000 for the day. Is it more shocking that he was meeting people in the bathroom or that someone lost $100,000 and wasn't phased?

The glassed-eyed people at the slots, the lack of windows and no immediately discernable way out of the casinos added a dash of sadness to the environment. In addition to that was an element of cheese, such as the show, "Thunder Down Under," which featured PG 13 gyrating Australian gigolos.



But the most disturbing thing out there were posters of a diesel Carrot Top.



Which led to the debate - do stars come to Vegas to peak - like Hannah Montana is doing - or to die - like Carrot Top. I guess both? For Carrot Top - his future looks bleak:



* via mishmash.com.

All in all, an unsinful visit to Sin City.